August 2007 - Page 2 of 4 - McLellan Marketing Group

Are you being held hostage by your web developer?

August 19, 2007

We just guided a new (pro bono) client through an absolute nightmare. They were being held hostage by their web developer/IT provider. I wouldn't wish what they went through on my worst enemy so here are some warning signs and tips.

Who registers/owns the domain name? Whoever controls your domain name, controls your site. Be sure the domain is registered in your name. You want to own your own domain.

Is it built so you can update your own content? With all the software solutions out there, there's no reason in the world (unless you have more money than time) to pay a web developer to update your content, once your site is complete. That doesn't mean you have to. Many businesses choose to retain their web developer to modify content. The question is — could you if you wanted to?

Is the site built on proprietary software? If you count on your site and get sideways with your web developer, what happens? Could you move your site? How about your databases? Could you do it even if the web developer shut you out?

Software and technology has completely changed the way websites and blogs are built. In the olden days (late 80s and early 90's) no one but the web gurus understood coding and the like.

But the world has changed and now you can control your own destiny.

The good news — most web developers are completely above board and honest. The problem is that the people hiring web developers that glaze over as soon as they hear HTML or WYSIWYG are the ones who are least equipped to pick out the good guys from the bad.

So let's help them out. Come on – add to my list. What else should neophytes know or watch out for when looking for some help with a web presence?

It's not art, it's a website

What's the matter with you people? You're supposed to be marketers!

Legal marketers get new resource

August 18, 2007

Legal Marketing Reader, http://legalmarketingreader.com, creates a one-stop destination with easy access to the latest information on law firm business development topics by collecting the best on-line resources and constantly updated headline feeds from the industry's leading experts. It's launch was announced yesterday.

"The idea is to create a trusted, no-nonsense tool for time-starved professionals that effectively filters out much of the spam and clutter encountered in broad web searches or traditional surfing," said Legal Marketing Reader editor and publisher Amy Campbell.

I went to check it out and was pleasantly surprised. Instead of articles written in that legal beagle English — there were articles like "Facebook: Blocking and Tackling" and "Market or Die."

Looks like the new world of marketing has even reached the hallowed halls of justice! I'm no lawyer (nor did I ever play one on TV) but there were several articles that caught my interest. So…attorney or not, check it out.

Tagline contest — win a copy of Age of Conversation!

August 17, 2007

Here's a little weekend fun. Without cheating, googling or asking your spouse — can you identify which business goes with each tagline?

E-mail me your answers and I will draw one lucky winner and send them a copy of The Age of Conversation!

Just do it.

Think different.

Good to the last drop.

A little dab’ll do ya.

Tell them Charlie sent you.

Because I’m worth it.

Let your fingers do the walking.

Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

We bring good things to life.

You deserve a break today.

Clarification: Even if you don't get them all right — enter anyway. I'm going to draw for all entrants, not just the ones who get 100% right.

UPDATE: The winner (selected among everyone who played…drawn randomly from my Disney ball cap) is Karey Niday.

How much do you believe in your ideas?

August 16, 2007

Here in the United States, we gather every November to give thanks. Each year we sit at a table filled with turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie and of course, some post dinner football. Why?

Behold the power of persistence.

We all know the story of the pilgrims of 1621. But many don't know that while there was an occasional day of thanks after 1621, it typically happened in June and then would go many years before the next celebration. President Jefferson actually scoffed at the idea of a day of thanks.

We would be at work on that 4th Thursday in November and cranberry jelly free, if it were not for Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor who wrote editorials, and letters to governors and presidents. Hale felt so strongly that our country should observe a day of thanks that she maintained her campaign for 40 years until in 1863 President Lincoln finally declared the last Thursday in November a national day of thanks.

Imagine if she had written just one editorial or letter and then given up.

And yet that's what marketers do every day. They try something once or twice and then throw in the towel. If you know you have a good idea – don't let fear, time or pressure wear you down. If you truly believe you are the right fit for a potential client…don't accept no.

Keep lobbying for a chance to tell the story. Even if it takes 40 years.

Related posts:

Keep banging into those walls

Be a Drip

Plug into a wealth of networking advice

August 15, 2007

Have you ever wondered how Seth Godin or Guy Kawasaki build their networks? Or Joe Vitale or Scott Ginsberg? Me too.

Good news for us, so did Josh Hinds. He went one step beyond wondering. He asked. His blog, Business Networking Advice.com is a treasure trove of brief interviews with a who's who of the business world. Each interview explores the person's viewpoint on networking, asks for some pointers and success stories.

None of them are a long read, but they are all good reads. Josh kindly decided to include me in his series. You can read more about my take on networking, if you'd like.

I decided to turn the tables on Josh and posed a few questions of my own.

Q. When did you start your interview series and what prompted it?

Josh Hinds: One of the topics that I speak to groups and companies on is networking –creating win, win relationships — both personally and professionally. Initially I was going to use the site to feature mostly my own articles on the topic, but then the idea struck me that it would be a whole lot more interesting to reach out to others who were getting the whole "effective networking" thing right — so I decided that in addition to my own articles on the topic I'd feature the short interviews. I actually started BusinessNetworkingAdvice.com in August of 2006. When it comes to personal development I've always held to the belief that you have to really stay plugged in and learning on going — doing the interviews have helped me a great deal and of course I always learn something useful with each one as well — even if it's just another take, or validation for something that I already believed to be true.

Q. Are there any themes you see among the answers that really resonate with you?

Josh Hinds: That's a great question. Within about the first several interviews I'd done a pattern began to show up and continues — that is givers gain — but you can't go into a situation where you just met someone and expect to get something from that person right off the bat. It's all about building rapport with the other person. Creating value in their eyes first, then as time goes by there's a better than average chance that you'll be in a position where that person will help you if they are able to. Again, the key is that you don't come from a point of what can I get from this other person — but rather, what can I do to serve this person I've just met (or the people who are in my "network").

Q. Who is the one person you'd like to interview but haven't snagged yet?

Josh Hinds: I'm not sure I have enough space to list everyone I'd love to interview 🙂 Two that come to mind though would be Zig Ziglar and Jack Welch (former CEO of GE). Zig Ziglar has a quote which I absolutely adore and try to live my life around — it goes like this: You can have everything in life you want, if you'll only help enough other people get what they want" — talk about a philosophy that would serve anyone well. I think it would be particularly fascinating to get Jack Welch's take on networking — to have risen to the level he did as CEO of GE I suspect he could teach us all quite a bit about networking and building professional connections.

Thanks to Josh for being the interviewee for a change and for inviting me to be a part of his stellar series.

Some products just should not be made

August 14, 2007

Here's the description for the Little Joseph candle holder.

Little Joseph is a hand-painted, porcelain candle holder. We can't decide if he's sinister or sweet. Part of that will certainly depend on what you decide to do with his hair. Use dripless candles if you'd like to keep him bald, otherwise, give him pure white locks, beeswax locks, or hair in several shades of the rainbow.

Eww. Found this little gem at the Denver Egotist, who says they are in existence to make Denver suck less daily. My suggestion, Denver should ban Little Josephs.

A new model = a real brand

August 14, 2007

The phrase "a different perspective" is synonymous with Marcus Brown. He's one of the boldest, most daring marketing bloggers I've ever had the pleasure of getting to know. So it came as no surprise to me that he has crafted a completely new model for serving up ideas to clients.

The Ides of March works like this. In his own words…

All you have to do is get in touch and tell me what the problem is. It could be anything from developing a new kind of pizza, changing a process, launching or developing a new product, improving something, telling a story, repositioning something, finding staff, or getting your existing staff to smile. It could also be an idea for winning a piece of new business or finding the missing link in a brand thingy you’re trying to do for a client. It could be anything.

So you send me your problem and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours with any questions and tell you how long you have to wait for my idea. When I’ve come up with something I’ll send it through per email and you can have a look and a think and if you think you can use it then you pay me.

And you pay me what you think the idea is worth. It’s completely up to you. The absolute minimum per idea is 10 Euros. Once you’ve bought the idea it’s yours. You own it.

If you choose not to buy the idea it remains my property and I will post it on this blog.

I think anyone in the business has pondering this pricing model but we've got too much overhead and too little courage to try it. I can't wait to watch it take off and be ridiculously successful.

And I get a front row seat. One of the mechanics Marcus has added to his company is the creation of his Senate. A world-wide smattering of professionals that Marcus can call on as he needs them. I'm proud to be among the list. Here are my fellow Senators:

Victor Houghton, Jason V. Lonsdale , Grant McCracken, Christian Baujard, Todd Foutz, Angus Whines, Sean Howard, Tim Keil, Age Conte, Rob Campbell, Mark McGuinness, Rob Mortimer, Luc Debaisieux, Faris Yakob, Dan Germain, Nina Zimmermann, Paul H. Colman, Mark Earls, Fredrik Sarnblad, Andy Boucher, Richard Huntington, Henry Lambert, John Grant, Andrew Hovells, Gavin Heaton, Sebastian Oehme, Rory Sutherland, Russell Davies, David Brabbins, Charles Frith, Beeker Northam, William Humphrey, Mark Goren, Giles Rhys Jones, Gareth Kay, David Bausola, Philip Hubertus, John Dodds, Graeme Douglas, Amelia Torode, Drew McLellan, Dan Shute, Niku Banaie, Paul McEnany.

Marcus is boldly going to a completely new space within an age-old industry. Do you think he'll have any trouble differentiating his business from the pack? This is about actually doing something different, rather than just talking different about the same old thing.

That's branding at its core. You start by doing something different. What are you doing that's different?

Be sure your marketing tactic fits the challenge

August 14, 2007

We all know that the airlines are in big trouble.

Back in '03, on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being very dire, aviation industry expert Darryl Jenkins ranked the health of the US airline industry about a 10-12.

And it hasn't gotten any better.

Picture the scene of what has surely happened:

The execs at United have gathered all their marketing folks and their agencies into a big room and said "come up with something to make people want to fly United. And once they do, let's be sure that they feel special."

All those brilliant minds whirling and working. The smoke practically billows from their ears. Then, suddenly someone gives a shout. They share their brainchild and like a heavenly choir, everyone in the room sings its praises.

And so, the red carpet is born. (This one was the carpet in LA that we were not invited to walk upon! And doesn't it look like they are proud of their own program? Nice, clean carpet eh?)

Yes…that's right. Now on every United flight, there are two walkways to the jetway. Divided by cloth retractabelts, there is the walkway for those not smart enough to always choose United or who are infrequent fliers. Then, just off to the side, is the holy grail. The red carpet. If you are flying first or business class you can stride onto the plane after first crossing over the United Red Carpet. (cue the crowd's ohhs and ahhs here)

Come on. A red carpet? (Which really, as Greg Verdino points out, is a door mat.) That is the best you can come up with?

You cannot put a bandaid on a broken leg. United's red carpet is a surface solution for a very deep problem. If all of their flights were not oversold, or they hadn't cut their schedules to bare bones or you didn't have to pack in your own pretzels, then sure…try the red carpet.

Think about your air travel experiences. Would walking on a red carpet make you feel valued? Or as Greg asks, would it just make you feel silly? The majority of United's passengers don't fly business or first class. So how do you suppose being reminded that they're the peasants who haven't earned the right to parade on the red carpet feel?

Where else have you seen companies put a bandaid on a broken limb?

Is your brand acid-test proof?

Want to kick off your week with a burst of creativity?

August 13, 2007

Let's start the week with the idea that we can be incredibly creative and attention-getting with a little effort. Here are some very clever visual marketing messages that probably didn't cost too much more than the usual hum drum executions.

Want to see a few more and learn about the 5 rules for being clever/funny in ads?

Related posts:

Creativity tip — ask and ask again!

More packaging game candy

Put on a different hat

Tell me again that branding doesn’t matter

August 12, 2007

For those of you still on the fence about the power of branding, check out the results of the study just released by Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. The full study will be released in the August issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The study finds that kids aged 3 to 5, when presented with identical foods — one in a McDonald's wrapper and the other without — overwhelmingly rated the branded one as tasting better.

Hmm. And if branding affects consumers that dramatically by the age of 3, how do you suppose it works after another 20-30 years of conditioning?

Still wondering about the value of investing in and building a consistent brand?

Related posts:

A must read book on branding

In lead generation, branding matters

This is your brain. This is your brain on brands.

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